


do aliens even have genders?

by Alessgrosskid (thatonegrosskid)



Series: sometimes a family is 3 irkens, 2 humans and an abomination. [1]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, a whole lot of sillyness, alien concepts of gender, nonbinary!dib, trans!zim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 13:57:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17747159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatonegrosskid/pseuds/Alessgrosskid
Summary: Zim found the human concept of gender stupid. On earth, humans were divided based on their ability to receive seed in sexual reproduction, tossing any being whose genitals shape or abilities were different into the nearest category; Male and Female. Worse, beings were treated differently depending on what category they fit into, it was barbaric.(a very short preface to a series involving trans!zim and nonbinary!dib.)





	do aliens even have genders?

Zim found the human concept of gender stupid. On earth, humans were divided based on their ability to receive seed in sexual reproduction, tossing any being whose genitals shape or abilities were different into the nearest category. Male and Female. Worse, beings were treated differently depending on what category they fit into, it was barbaric.   
On Irk, things were different. There were no arbitrary genders to take into account, all irkens were treated based on ranking and position. Of course, before the Empire became the awesome force it was, Irkins could reproduce sexually. Technically, they still could with a bit of tweaking. But it was unnecessary. The only remnants of Irkin culture from that time were in the language, pronouns with different inflections that would, if translated into gendered language, technically give a ‘he’, ‘she' or ‘they’. These inflections tended to be based on an Irkens preference, but they all had the same connotation.   
Zim had always preferred the ‘he’ inflection, finding it more pleasing to hear, so when he arrived on earth he decided to use their english ‘he’ pronouns. This was fine for a while, especially in grade skool when divide between genders was limited and able to be overlooked. This changed in midle skool.   
Suddenly, the divide grew larger, more obvious. Children who were once friendly with each other began to separate and join different groups of their own kind. While previously, most children wore very similar clothing (aside from some female outliers), the girls wore form fitting shirts and crop tops and skirts and dresses while the boys wore the same shirts and jeans they always did.   
It was no longer tentatively appropriate for zims clothing to resemble dresses, his shirt had to be changed to fall at his waist instead of his knees, making him very uncomfortable. He was told to ‘man up’ and act his part. He didn't know what to do with this new found discomfort. While he deigned to stick with the status quo, he noticed Dib did not.   
In their second year of midle skool, the Dib human began answering to ‘they’ instead of ‘he’. They were bullied mercilessly for the first few months, before the bullies went back to their usual taunts about his interest and head size rather then his pronoun usage. Zim was confused. After researching, it seemed while humans were typically categorized by sex, some rebelled against this, identifying outside their categorization, some went outside the ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’ trinary and chose other pronouns, such as ‘zie’ or ‘fae’. These humans adamantly refused their categorization, and failure to receive support lead to massive failings in health and, for some, death.   
Dib was not one who died. When others refused to use their pronouns, they ignored them or corrected them. This went on until it was accepted by all (at least begrudgingly.) Even Gaz seemed to accept in, quoting “you're still a nuisance, now you're just a nonbinary nuisance.”  
Zim felt angry, why did he suffer in discomfort while Dib was accepted? He hated being treated like a boy, but didn't know what to do. Even seeing his disguise in the mirror made him nauseous. For the next few years, he tried to change his appearance, hoping to alleviate the discomfort. In third year of midle skool, he wore a shaggier, slightly longer wig, his appearance reminding him strangely of tak.   
He liked this, enjoyed his disguised reflection for the first time in a long time. He thought about this, the differences between Tak and him, combined with his research on gender and it clicked in his head. Her head.   
The next year, her wig was in a bob, swooping bangs covering her forehead. She called her tallest to relay the news, and was given a slow nod and a promise to update her personnel files.  
Walking into school, she demanded that she now be called ‘she’ and that any who disobeyed would be horrifically maimed. It turned out, no one much cared. It was pointless to bully her, as she never really got that she was being bullied until it got physical, and there was no fun in punching someone a good 1-2 feet smaller than everyone else in class.   
Dib approached her later that day and asked “do aliens even have genders?” Like the ignorant pig they were, and Zim sneered.   
“Apparently, because Zim is a girl.”


End file.
